'If only they knew' - A Photograph by Andy Lackner

A candid shot taken by a friend of ours who grew up to become a professional photographer (http://www.diepixelgarage.com/html/eingang.html)
We have had this picture on our wall ever since (apart fron the 7 years when we lived on the boat) and I often look at it and think, if only they knew, what strange and interesting adventures they had to look forward to.
This was before we even had inklings of being screwed over by Margaret Thatchers Monetarist economic policies, giving the house back to the bank, sailing away, exploring the world, getting married, surviving hurricanes, having a kid, moving countries, and growing up.
We were in a hiatus, having sold our first home and making squillions, looking to move to where the work was.
We lived in a small rental in Ringwood while we were trying to buy our next property in Stanwell. Our lodger was 'Nutty Norman' a perennially pissed sea captain who, when at sea would be in command of huge tankers over 300m long (Bigger than the QE2). He looked a little like Captain Haddock of Tintin fame, shorter and rounder but with the same black beard and big ruddy nose, would disappear to the Pub at 10 am when they opened, get shitfaced, come home at 3 with a 4 pack of special brew to keep him going through the afternoon then off to the Pub again when they opened for the evening, after that hed come home and cook stuff, once nearly burning the house down when he fell into a drunken stupor while making chicken stock which boiled dry in the middle of the night.
Andy had come over to the UK from Switzerland on a working holiday staying on a friends farm, we used to hang out a lot and road trip, exploring the countryside.
This picture was taken in about 1987 out in the back blocks of Dorset/Wiltshire.